Geraldo L. Cadava: Arizona Has a Long History of Demonizing Mexican Migrants
[A native of Tucson, Geraldo L. Cadava teaches Latino history at Northwestern University. Harvard University Press will publish his forthcoming book on the Arizona-Sonora border region since World War II. E-mail him at g-cadava@northwestern.edu]
The inclination of Arizonans to target Mexicans as the cause of their political and financial problems has shaped the state's history for at least a century. In the middle of World War I, employers used fears of socialism as an excuse to fire Mexican workers, even as agricultural employers cited wartime labor shortages to justify hiring more. During the Great Depression, when Mexicans were seen as competition for jobs and burdens to public welfare, Arizonans used racist threats and scare tactics to pressure Mexicans to return to Mexico.
Fears of invasion by an Axis "Fifth Column" preoccupied Arizonans during World War II, so Mexicans had to register with local officials and state their loyalties.
Similarly, during the Cold War, the McCarran-Walter Act justified deportation of suspected subversives, creating yet another pretext for discrimination against Mexicans in the name of political necessity.
Further Cold War-era demonization came in the form of Operation Wetback, a government tactic used to deport a million Mexicans during the mid-1950s.
More recently, economic hardship during the 1970s made Mexican immigrants convenient targets of violence. In the 1976 Hanigan incident, white ranchers were accused of kidnapping, robbing and torturing Mexican immigrant workers. It ominously forecast the discrimination Mexican immigrants faced during the remainder of the 20th century....
As the Obama administration revives a debate over comprehensive immigration reform, the lessons of Arizona become all the more important. Too many Americans have displaced their anxieties about internal turmoil onto Mexican immigrants. Before doing so again, we must examine our own social, political and economic failures.
Immigrants face challenges enough without having heaped upon them the problems of others.
Read entire article at Arizona Daily Star
The inclination of Arizonans to target Mexicans as the cause of their political and financial problems has shaped the state's history for at least a century. In the middle of World War I, employers used fears of socialism as an excuse to fire Mexican workers, even as agricultural employers cited wartime labor shortages to justify hiring more. During the Great Depression, when Mexicans were seen as competition for jobs and burdens to public welfare, Arizonans used racist threats and scare tactics to pressure Mexicans to return to Mexico.
Fears of invasion by an Axis "Fifth Column" preoccupied Arizonans during World War II, so Mexicans had to register with local officials and state their loyalties.
Similarly, during the Cold War, the McCarran-Walter Act justified deportation of suspected subversives, creating yet another pretext for discrimination against Mexicans in the name of political necessity.
Further Cold War-era demonization came in the form of Operation Wetback, a government tactic used to deport a million Mexicans during the mid-1950s.
More recently, economic hardship during the 1970s made Mexican immigrants convenient targets of violence. In the 1976 Hanigan incident, white ranchers were accused of kidnapping, robbing and torturing Mexican immigrant workers. It ominously forecast the discrimination Mexican immigrants faced during the remainder of the 20th century....
As the Obama administration revives a debate over comprehensive immigration reform, the lessons of Arizona become all the more important. Too many Americans have displaced their anxieties about internal turmoil onto Mexican immigrants. Before doing so again, we must examine our own social, political and economic failures.
Immigrants face challenges enough without having heaped upon them the problems of others.